How to target procurement for reuse support

In this article we detail a simple way to encourage your procurement department to support and get involved with reuse.

Why procurement?

The procurement department should be a big player when it comes to reuse and perhaps even lead on reuse. 

Check out 15 ways the procurement department can stimulate a reuse project. This includes having reuse of assets in the procurement policy.

This article will explain how best to use your partnership with procurement to get more people reusing.

There are five steps;

1. Make some contacts within the procurement department.
2. Ask for an internal email list of all of the people in the organisation who procure items for their office or department.
3. Fill out the email template at the end of this blog post
4. Fire out a communication about why it’s important to reuse and encourage them to sign up to Warp It
5. Bulk add their email addresses to Warp It so they are part of the network and receive automatic messages.

If the list of procurers or buyers is too long, you can filter it down to simply the highest spenders, or those who only order furniture.

When is the best time to use this email list?

We were given this idea by Richard Jolley, Category Manager, Procurement, from Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust.

He told us that the best time to send these emails out is three to four months before the end of the financial year, when budgets are getting stretched and pots are running dry.

People will be more inclined to reuse if the option of purchasing new is restricted or off the table.

Opinion of a procurement professional

Kirsty Hughes from Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh told us: "Before, things would have just been scrapped, they were just forgotten about because they weren’t part of the new project.

So, from a procurement point of view, I think that we can be key drivers in the success of Warp It. We’ve got the insight and involvement at the early stages."

Grab your template here.